How To Name Your Files

To help you set up the playlist for your mp4museum media player, we’ll walk through how to organize your files so they play in a sequence with some looping clips and some “waiting” points. By placing .loop. in the filenames, certain clips will repeat indefinitely until the “next” button is pressed. The files without .loop. will play once and automatically transition to the next clip.

Media Player Behavior:

  • Files are played in alphabetical order.
  • Files containing .loop. will loop continuously until the button is pressed.
  • When you want the player to “wait” on a black screen, you can create a file named no-content.loop.mp4 (or any similarly named file with .loop.) to simulate a pause or waiting state. It should be a video file with nothing but a black background, a few seconds long.

You can download an mp4 file with 10 seconds of black background here.

Example File List:

/media/
├── 1_intro.mp4
├── 2_presentation.loop.mp4
├── 3_transition.mp4
├── 4_no-content.loop.mp4
├── 5_interview.mp4
├── 6_no-content.loop.mp4
├── 7_documentary.loop.mp4
├── 8_credits.mp4

Playlist Breakdown:

  • 1_intro.mp4 — This will play first and transition automatically to the next clip.
  • 2_presentation.loop.mp4 — This clip loops continuously until the user presses the button. You might use this for content that should stay on-screen until someone advances the playlist.
  • 3_transition.mp4 — Plays once (perhaps a short transition or filler clip).
  • 4_no-content.loop.mp4 — This file effectively pauses the playlist by looping a black screen (or another “empty” video). It waits here until the user presses the button.
  • 5_interview.mp4 — Plays an interview segment once, then transitions to the next clip.
  • 6_no-content.loop.mp4 — Another “waiting” point with the same behavior as before. The player will wait at a black screen until the button is pressed.
  • 7_documentary.loop.mp4 — Plays the documentary on a loop until stopped by the button press.
  • 8_credits.mp4 — This could be an end-of-playlist clip, playing once and transitioning back to the start (if the player loops the playlist automatically).